Page 41 of Savage Hunt

The air stuck in my throat, and my feet moved in his direction, the connection between us pulling me toward him.

A hard hand gripped my shoulder and forced me to stop. “Where do you think you’re going, inmate?” The dux demon snarled and flicked his forked tongue. “You’re here to fight. Not see your lover.”

The desire to rip that tongue right out of his mouth bled through my veins.

“Teague, don’t.”

I jerked in Fane’s direction but remained put. “I’m really tired of you telling me don’t don’t don’t. It’s really annoying.”

His brow arched. “I’m only trying to keep you out of trouble.”

“Because you’re so good at staying out of trouble, right?” A heavy dose of fear hit me in the chest as a horrible thought coalesced in my mind. “Fane, what if…” I couldn’t even think the words.

He shook his head. “Demarcus wouldn’t make you and me fight. He knows that would push me too far, and I’d stop being so cooperative.”

“Why have you been so cooperative?” Fane Maverick didn’t follow anyone’s rules, even his own. So why had he let the guards shackle and muzzle him?

“I’m pretending to be the good prisoner for now.” A feral smile curved his lips as his pupils thinned. “But that’ll change when we find a way out of Heldrok.”

“Prisoner 487331, get in the circle.” The guard that dragged me out of my cell shoved me into the center of the circle to wait on my opponent.

I glared at him over my shoulder, imagining his terror when I poked through his mind to yank out his fears.

The group of guards split, and as a dux demon pulled someone into the fighting ring, an arctic wind rushed over my body.

No. Anyone but her.

“Tate?”

My limbs turned numb as Maddie’s confusion intensified. Clearly, she’d never been in the pit and had no idea what her future held. This was the plan. I was put in Maddie’s cell so we’d become friends. And once we had, I’d be forced to kill her.

Chapter

Fourteen

I sent the warden a death glare as rage bubbled in my blood. If I could fully tap into the Infernal Sol or my shifter side, I’d launch onto that balcony and rip Demarcus’s throat out. He showed his palms and shook his head as if to say his hands were tied.

He was the warden. He ran the prison. Why couldn’t he stop this?

Demarcus mouthed one word, or a name rather. Venna.

Could she have really forced him to orchestrate this? Did he owe her that much, or did she have some secret on him?

Well, fuck Venna and the warden. I wasn’t doing jack shit.

“I’m not fighting her,” I said, my voice barely raised, but Demarcus heard it over the rumbling of the crowd.

“Fight?” Maddie’s face grew as white as a sheet. “They want you and me to fight?”

“I refuse.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Give me someone else.”

A guard came up behind me, his long fingers wrapping around the back of my throat. “You will fight or—” As his fingers brushed my neck tattoo, an electric jolt hit him, and he released me, shaking his hand.

“Or what?” Fane stepped forward, his muscles swelling as dangerous energy oozed off him. “You’re not going to do shit to her, Xan. And don’t think for a second that every guard and inmate that has touched what’s mine won’t go unpunished.” His lips curled back, revealing his sharpened teeth.

My pulse spiked, and heat twirled low in my belly. I licked my lips, wanting nothing more than to dart across the circle and crash into him. Only Fane Maverick could make me forget I was in an Underworld prison in a shitty fighting arena.

Some of the COs who’d been less than nice traded worried glances at the demon shifter’s threat.

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